Just stumbled across this on Facebook. So interesting to see the debate of butter vs. shortening or lard. I make my own pie crust with great success every time, using a recipe handed down from my grandma. My vote would be lard every time (which is what the recipe calls for originally), except that it is hard to find (though the Walmarts in our area usually carry it, due to a large Hispanic population). I typically use shortening when I can't get lard. The other trick for a super-flaky crust is the "secret ingredient" in my grandma's recipe - a very small amount of vinegar! Sprinkled onto the flour/salt/lard (or shortening) mixture just before the water is added, it helps make the flakiest crust imaginable! The dough is still easy to handle and you get no odd vinegar taste, but it makes one of the prettiest, flakiest, tastiest crusts ever (and yes, the fluted edge stands up beautifully during cooking, but is still very light & flaky, almost to the point of melt-in-your-mouth). We always get rave reviews for our pies and pie crust, which is why my parents ended up getting elected to make pies for the family gathering for Thanksgiving! ;-) I would be interested to see an experiment with vinegar to see if it really does help make the crust flakier, because it certainly tastes like it to us. :-)

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